Desperation in Action

One of our treasured Japanese correspondents just have us a heads up about this tragedy, involving an airplane stowaway who apparently froze to death while concealed in a Boeing 777's landing gear. Such deaths are actually somewhat common, not to mention quite predictable—at 35,00 feet, temperatures are insanely icy, and oxygen scarce. Yet men and women desperate to escape terrible circumstances keep on tossing the dice.

Do any of them ever win the gamble? We actually looked into this very...